Korean movie Dragon War

With comments

In 1999, comedian Shen Jionglai directed "Reptile Wars", which was the largest investment movie of the year ( The production cost is 11 billion Korean won (approximately RMB 85 million). It has conducted large-scale publicity in overseas markets in advance and signed several large-scale film export contracts. But even so, when the film was released in Seoul, the box office was still terrible, with only more than 300,000 moviegoers.

After 7 years, Shim Jionglai once again met the local audience with the monster movie "War of the Dragons" with an investment of 30 billion won (approximately RMB 230 million), but the box office has been rising steadily. With over 8.4 million viewers, it was not only the Korean box office champion in 2007, but also one of the top ten grossing films in Korean film history.

The film tells the story of reporter Ethan and a girl suffering from a mysterious disease, who work together to fight a group of giant pythons that want to destroy the earth. After the film was released, the most popular comments were "perfect CG + pale story". It seems that not being good at telling stories has become a common problem in director Shen Jionglai's works. Only this time, the gorgeous CG effects made more Korean viewers ignore the shortcomings of the story. Compared with the previous "Reptile Wars", the scenes produced by real people combined with the latest CG animation technology are close to the level of similar Hollywood films. Although some scenes are suspected of imitating Hollywood monster movies such as "Jurassic Park" and "King Kong", the overall effect The effect is pretty good. In particular, the python battle scene at the end of the film is grand and lifelike. The two pythons have different shapes and are full of flesh. Their vivid fighting movements and lifelike expressions allow the audience immersed in the fantasy world to enjoy a rare audio-visual feast.

But then again, although the pictures created with money are beautiful, the paleness of the plot is also difficult to conceal. According to the director, the film has learned from the failures of its previous films. The monster's design draws on dragons, which are very symbolic in Korea, and the plot also incorporates ancient legends with Korean national characteristics to maintain a sense of intimacy with local audiences. However, as an upgraded version of "Reptile", "War of the Dragons" still lacks a fascinating plot and flesh-and-blood characters, coupled with the misuse of Korean symbols (such as the inexplicable sensational Arirang music at the end of the film), it is inevitable that the film will become a generic work .

Shen Jionglai has always hoped to conquer Hollywood and the world by using English lines, European and American actors, and applying Hollywood production methods to create a Korean-style commercial blockbuster (Blockbuster) (his ambitions can also be seen in the film) For example, the scene where the Korean python is entrenched on the tallest building in the United States appears frequently on the poster, and the Korean python transforms into a dragon at the end of the film to maintain world peace).

But how can a work that lacks national cultural heritage, only uses national culture as a selling point, and is only supported by Hollywood superficiality to impress the hearts of global audiences (the film's North American box office is still dismal)? If director Shen Jionglai does not learn his lesson, even in another seven years, his works will still be stuck in the dilemma between technology and content.